An elderly woman is assisted as she crosses the Irpin River, under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian air strike, as civilians flee the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. .
Vadim Ghirda / AP
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Vadim Ghirda / AP
An elderly woman is assisted as she crosses the Irpin River, under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian air strike, as civilians flee the town of Irpin, Ukraine, Saturday, March 5, 2022. .
Vadim Ghirda / AP
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday warned that Ukraine’s statehood was in jeopardy and likened Western sanctions against Russia to a “declaration of war,” while a cease-fire has already ended. Promises in the besieged port city of Mariupol collapsed amid terror.
With Kremlin rhetoric becoming increasingly acrimonious and fighting dispersed, Russian troops continue to attack besieged cities and the number of Ukrainians forced to leave their country has increased. to 1.4 million people. During the night, Russian forces increased their shelling of Mariupol and dropped powerful bombs on residential areas of Chernihiv, a city north of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.
Mothers left their bodies to mourn their slain children, wounded soldiers wore checkers and doctors worked in the light of their cell phones as gloom and despair pervaded. Crowds of men lined up in the capital to join the Ukrainian army.
The government has ordered men between the ages of 18 and 60 to stay and be ready to fight. Some, like Volodymyr Onysko, volunteered.
“We know why we are here. We know why we defend our country,” Onysko told Britain’s Sky News. “We know what we’re doing, and that’s why we’re going to win.”
Putin continued to blame the war on the Ukrainian leadership and blamed their resistance to the invasion.
“If they continue to do what they are doing, they are questioning the future of the Ukrainian state,” he said. “And if this happens, it will be entirely on their conscience.”
He also took action in the face of Western sanctions that have crippled Russia’s economy and caused the value of its currency to drop.
He said during a televised meeting with flight attendants of the Russian airline Aeroflot. “But thank God we’re not there yet.”
Russia’s financial system suffered another blow when Mastercard and Visa announced they were suspending operations in the country.
Ten days after the Russian invasion, the struggle to enforce a temporary ceasefire in Mariupol and the eastern city of Volnovakha shows the fragility of efforts to prevent fighting across Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said Russian air strikes and shelling prevented people from leaving before evacuations could be agreed to. Putin accused Ukraine of sabotaging the effort.
According to Davyd Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, the third round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will take place on Monday. He gave no further details, including where they would take place.
Previous meetings were held in Belarus and resulted in a failed ceasefire agreement to create humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of children, women and elderly people from besieged cities where Pharmacies were left open, hundreds of thousands of people faced shortages of food and water, and the wounded succumbed to their wounds.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said thousands of residents gathered to safely move out of the city of 430,000 people when shelling began and evacuations were halted. Later in the day, he said the attack escalated further.
“The city is in a very, very difficult situation to besieged,” Boychenko told Ukraine TV. “Continuous shelling of residential areas is taking place, planes are dropping bombs on residential areas. The Russian occupiers are using heavy artillery, including multiple Grad rocket launchers.”
Russia has made significant strides south, seeking to cut off Ukraine’s maritime access. Capturing Mariupol could allow Russia to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.
Meanwhile, the head of the Chernihiv region said Russia had dropped powerful bombs on residential areas of the city of the same name, which has a population of 290,000. Vyacheslav Chaus posted a photo online of what he said was an unexploded FAB-500 bomb, a 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) bomb.
“Usually this weapon is used against military-industrial facilities and fortified structures,” said Chaus.
In his address to the Ukrainian people, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed to “500 kg bombs that have been dropped on Ukrainian homes. Look at Borodyanka, schools are destroyed, kindergartens are blown up. tung. At the damaged Kharkiv Assumption Church. Look at what Russia has done.”
Ukrainian soldiers carry a baby stroller after crossing the Irpin River on an improvised path under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian air strike.
Vadim Ghirda / AP
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Ukrainian soldiers carry a baby stroller after crossing the Irpin River on an impromptu path under a bridge that was destroyed by a Russian air strike.
Vadim Ghirda / AP
The West has given Ukraine broad support, providing aid and weapons and delivering massive sanctions on Russia. But the war itself was entrusted to the Ukrainians, who displayed a mixture of courageous determination and frustration.
“Ukraine is bleeding,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a video released Saturday, “but Ukraine has not failed.”
Zelenskyy told US lawmakers the Russian military entered a third nuclear power plant, then took control of one of the four operating plants in the country and the closed plant in Chernobyl .
Zelenskyy pleaded with lawmakers for more help, especially fighter jets, to help protect Ukraine’s skies, even as he insisted Russia was being defeated.
“We’re causing damage to occupants that they can’t see in their worst nightmares,” Zelenskyy said.
The Russian military took control of the southern port city of Kherson this week. Although they surrounded Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv and Sumy, Ukrainian forces retained control of key cities in central and southeastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.
US President Joe Biden called Zelenskyy early Sunday morning, Kyiv time, to discuss sanctions against Russia and speed up US support for Ukraine. The White House said the call also included talks between Russia and Ukraine, but did not provide details.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Poland to meet the prime minister and foreign minister, a day after attending a NATO meeting in Brussels at which the alliance pledged to increase support for members. eastern slopes.
Blinken also spoke by phone with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who said that Beijing opposes any move to “add fuel to the fire” in Ukraine, according to China’s foreign ministry. Blinken said the world is watching to see which countries stand up for freedom and sovereignty, the State Department said.
In Moscow, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had a meeting with President Putin at the Kremlin. Israel maintains good relations with both Russia and Ukraine, and Bennett has offered to mediate in the conflict, but no details of the meeting were immediately released. Bennett’s office said he then spoke twice with Zelenskyy.
Following Western sanctions, Aeroflot, Russia’s top state-owned airline, announced plans to suspend all international flights except Belarus starting Tuesday.
The death toll in the conflict is difficult to measure. The United Nations human rights office says at least 351 civilians have been confirmed dead since the February 24 invasion, but the true number is probably much higher.
Ukraine’s military is far superior to Russia’s, but its professional and volunteer forces have fought back staunchly. Even in the cities that have fallen, there are signs of resistance.
Onlookers in Chernihiv cheered as they watched a Russian military plane fall from the sky and crash, according to video released by the Ukrainian government. In Kherson, hundreds of protesters waved blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and shouted: “Go home.”
A massive Russian armored fence that threatens Ukraine’s capital remains stalled outside Kyiv. Ukraine’s presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich said in the afternoon that the military situation was generally calmer and that Russian forces had not “taken active actions since the morning”.
Congress is considering a request for $10 billion in emergency funding for security needs and humanitarian aid. The UN has said it will step up humanitarian operations both inside and outside Ukraine, and the Security Council has scheduled a meeting for Monday to discuss the worsening situation.
The UN World Food Program has warned of an impending hunger crisis in Ukraine, a major global supplier of wheat, saying millions will need food aid “immediately.” “
Kyiv’s central train station remains crowded with people desperately fleeing. “People just want to live,” says one woman, Ksenia.
